AtomicQuote

Anne Fadiman Quotes

If you truly love a book, you should sleep with it, write in it, read aloud from it, and fill its pages with muffin crumbs.

Anne Fadiman

If you truly love a book, you should sleep with it, write in it, read aloud from it, and fill its pages with muffin crumbs.

Tags: bibliophile, bibliophiles, books, reader, reading

The reader who plucks a book from her shelf only once is as deprived as the listener who, after attending a single performance of a Beethoven symphony, never hears it again.

Anne Fadiman

The reader who plucks a book from her shelf only once is as deprived as the listener who, after attending a single performance of a Beethoven symphony, never hears it again.

Tags: rereading

About Author
Anne Fadiman (born August 7, 1953) is an American essayist and reporter. Her interests include literary journalism, essays, memoir, and autobiography. She has received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest, and the Salon Book Award.

The problem with being ravished by books at an early age is that later rereadings are often likely to disappoint. The sharp luscious flavor, the fine is fled, Hazlitt wrote, and nothing but the stalk...

Anne Fadiman

The problem with being ravished by books at an early age is that later rereadings are often likely to disappoint. The sharp luscious flavor, the fine is fled, Hazlitt wrote, and nothing but the stalk...

Tags: rereading

And there lay the essential differences between reading and rereading, acts that Henry and I were preforming simultaneously. The former had more velocity; the latter had more depth. The former shut ou...

Anne Fadiman

And there lay the essential differences between reading and rereading, acts that Henry and I were preforming simultaneously. The former had more velocity; the latter had more depth. The former shut ou...

Tags: rereading

To use an electronics analogy, closing a book on a bookmark is like pressing the Stop button, whereas when you leave the book facedown, you've only pressed Pause.

Anne Fadiman

To use an electronics analogy, closing a book on a bookmark is like pressing the Stop button, whereas when you leave the book facedown, you've only pressed Pause.

Something amazing happens when the rest of the world is sleeping. I am glued to my chair. I forget that I ever wanted to do anything but write. The crowded city, the crowded apartment, and the crowded...

Anne Fadiman

Something amazing happens when the rest of the world is sleeping. I am glued to my chair. I forget that I ever wanted to do anything but write. The crowded city, the crowded apartment, and the crowded...

Tags: night, sensory deprivation, sleeplessness

My brother and I were able to fantasize far more extravagantly about our parents' tastes and desires, their aspirations and their vices, by scanning their bookcases than by snooping in their closest....

Anne Fadiman

My brother and I were able to fantasize far more extravagantly about our parents' tastes and desires, their aspirations and their vices, by scanning their bookcases than by snooping in their closest....

Tags: bookshelves, parents, shelves

One of the strongest motivations for rereading is purely selfish: it helps you remember what you used to be like. Open an old paperback, spangled with marginalia in a handwriting you outgrew long ago,...

Anne Fadiman

One of the strongest motivations for rereading is purely selfish: it helps you remember what you used to be like. Open an old paperback, spangled with marginalia in a handwriting you outgrew long ago,...

Tags: rereading

I come from the sort of family in which, at the age of ten, I was told I must always say , never the , because meant the, and two the's were redundant -- indeed something only would say.

Anne Fadiman

I come from the sort of family in which, at the age of ten, I was told I must always say , never the , because meant the, and two the's were redundant -- indeed something only would say.

Tags: usage

Medicine was religion. Religion was society. Society was medicine. Even economics were mixed up in there somewhere (you had to have or borrow enough money to buy a pig, or even a cow, in case someone...

Anne Fadiman

Medicine was religion. Religion was society. Society was medicine. Even economics were mixed up in there somewhere (you had to have or borrow enough money to buy a pig, or even a cow, in case someone...

Wine stores should organize their bottles not by origin and varietal but by alcohol content and intensity of flavor,

Anne Fadiman

Wine stores should organize their bottles not by origin and varietal but by alcohol content and intensity of flavor,

We expect a wine of quality to demand something from us.

Anne Fadiman

We expect a wine of quality to demand something from us.

Now I only have one rule. Before I do anything I ask, Is it okay? Because I'm an American woman and they don't expect me to act like a Hmong anyway, they usually give me plenty of leeway.

Anne Fadiman

Now I only have one rule. Before I do anything I ask, Is it okay? Because I'm an American woman and they don't expect me to act like a Hmong anyway, they usually give me plenty of leeway.

To nature lovers, the season of new beginnings is the spring, but to people who excel in school, it's the fall.

Anne Fadiman

To nature lovers, the season of new beginnings is the spring, but to people who excel in school, it's the fall.

Tags: seasons

Pen-bereavement is a serious matter.

Anne Fadiman

Pen-bereavement is a serious matter.

Tags: pen, pens, writers, writing

So, if you're a doctor, how can you recognize that you're having a feeling? Some tips from Dr. Zinn:Most emotions have physical counterparts. Anxiety may be associated with a tightness of the abdomen...

Anne Fadiman

So, if you're a doctor, how can you recognize that you're having a feeling? Some tips from Dr. Zinn:Most emotions have physical counterparts. Anxiety may be associated with a tightness of the abdomen...

Tags: medicine

He was constantly, pathologically, insanely busy. That’s how he afforded the wine.

Anne Fadiman

He was constantly, pathologically, insanely busy. That’s how he afforded the wine.

The men were found to have left behind their guns but to have lugged such essentials as monogrammed silver cutlery, a backgammon board, a cigar case, a clothes brush, a tin of buttons polish, and a co...

Anne Fadiman

The men were found to have left behind their guns but to have lugged such essentials as monogrammed silver cutlery, a backgammon board, a cigar case, a clothes brush, a tin of buttons polish, and a co...

Tags: incompetence

You go from the north of Laos and then you go across the Mekong, and when the Pathet Lao soldiers fire, you do not think about your family, just yourself only. When you are on the other side, you will...

Anne Fadiman

You go from the north of Laos and then you go across the Mekong, and when the Pathet Lao soldiers fire, you do not think about your family, just yourself only. When you are on the other side, you will...

Bordeaux are named after châteaux. Castles.

Anne Fadiman

Bordeaux are named after châteaux. Castles.